Online porn drives children to take risks with sex, report says

The inquiry found children as young as 10 have been viewing pornographyGetty Images

Internet pornography is driving children to have riskier and more extreme forms of sex from an earlier age.

The first national inquiry into the effects of explicit images online found that graphic and often brutal depictions were distorting young people’s view of what constituted normal sexual relationships. Children as young as 10 were found to have been viewing pornography and the number involved increasing steadily up to the age of 18.

The report, published today by the Children’s Commissioner for England, said parents should not simply ban children from viewing pornography online but help them to deal with it instead. It said that images were hard to avoid on the internet, so it was far better to make sure that children knew who to talk…

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